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Good morning, Portland! It's going to be rainy and chilly today, with highs around 48 degrees. My end of November recommendations: take vitamin D and listen to Kate Bush's album The Kick Inside. You know, if you want to. No pressure. 

In any case, you should probably keep reading to find out today's news. 

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Nearly 30 people were forcibly removed from the Thousand Acres recreational area last month, after living on the public land for years. The Department of State Lands says the area was unfit for human habitation and faced severe environmental degradation. The encampment removal displaced residents who'd lived there undisturbed since at least 2017. Now, with Multnomah County's unhoused population far exceeding available resources, those who once called the wilderness area home face instability as they try to survive on the streets in a system that drove them to seek refuge at Thousand Acres in the first place. Read more from Kevin Foster here. 

• Yesterday, about 300 students at McMinnville High School walked out in protest of increased ICE enforcement activity in their community. The walkout comes just days after ICE agents detained a 17-year-old senior at the high school while he was on his lunch break. The boy who was arrested, Christian Jimenez, told immigration officers that he is a US citizen before they detained him. The Department of Homeland Security says Jimenez used his car to "violently attack" ICE, among other incendiary allegations that should not, under any circumstances, be taken at face value. The situation is awful, but kudos to the kids for taking to the streets. 

• Phil Knight, the man responsible for Nike and most of the votes Betsy Johnson got in the 2022 gubernatorial race, is once again throwing around quite a bit of cash in an attempt to get Republicans elected in Oregon. Last month, he donated $3 million to a PAC called Bring Balance to Salem, which is focused on electing Republicans to the Oregon Legislature. It's the single largest donation Knight has ever made to an Oregon politician or PAC, and the war chest could prove quite helpful for Republicans trying to chip away at the Democratic supermajority in 2026. Knight's massive donation is just one factor contributing to a sense of doom around the 2026 elections, when Governor Tina Kotek will be up for reelection. However, it should be noted that Knight has been donating millions to the PAC since 2022, and Democrats have continued to hold power in Oregon's Legislature. Now, if only the Democrats in Salem would stand on business a little more, we might not have to repeat this meltdown every two years. Fingers crossed for next year's short session. 

• The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Milwaukee Bucks last night, slightly making up for Sunday's truly humiliating loss to Oklahoma City. Their next game is tomorrow, against the San Antonio Spurs. (The Portland Mercury is a basketball newspaper now, in case you haven't heard.) 

• Need stuff to do this week? Whether you're entertaining family from out of town or trying to fill the long weekend on your own, the Mercury's gotchu. Among the many wonderful ideas in this week's Do This, Do That: A benefit event for Synth Library Portland on Friday, a grinch-themed skating event on Saturday (both of these events take place at the Lloyd Center, which is beating the "dead" allegations), and a free showing of the sad and moving (and locally-filmed) documentary Twinless at Tomorrow Theater on Sunday. Find out more here. 

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS: 

• The COP 30 climate conference wrapped up over the weekend, and guess what? It was a total flop. This headline puts a fine point on it: "Oil Producers, but Maybe Not the Planet, Get a Win as Climate Talks End." Despite the demands of climate experts and representatives from smaller countries around the world, the talks resulted in a woefully inadequate resolution. How inadequate? Well, it didn't even directly MENTION fossil fuels, let alone make a plan for phasing them out. Major global oil producers like Saudi Arabia and Russia made sure the conference wouldn't result in any real action, because that would threaten their economies and ways of life. Right. 

While the conference was a major disappointment, I don't think any serious person in the climate movement thought this year's COP gathering would finally be the thing that would change everything. The problem is, it's increasingly difficult to think anything will be. Still, I'd always rather go down fighting. Stay in the game, please. 

• A group of Senate Democrats are coming together to push back against party leadership, notably Senator Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who have proven themselves to be coughing babies against Trump's hydrogen bomb. The group of dissidents, who are apparently calling themselves the "Fight Club," includes well-known firebrands Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as well as Chris Van Hollen and our very own Jeff Merkley.  The group may throw their support behind candidates seeking to primary ineffective, moderate Democrats in the midterms, but it's unclear if they have a real plan of action at this point. Maybe it just amounts to political gossip, but perhaps it's helpful to know you're not alone when you crash out about how horrible establishment Democrats are. 

• There are only five weeks left for Americans (including Oregonians) to take advantage of federal tax credits included in the Inflation Reduction Act to reduce the cost of buying and installing energy efficient heat pumps, solar panels, and more. The tax credits were meant to last a decade, but Republicans want to ruin the planet and make your life more expensive in the meantime, so they'll now expire at the end of this year. If you're deadline driven, maybe that will provide an incentive to ACT NOW!!! 

• Instead of doing anything actually useful to help the American people and improve our ailing transportation system, the US Department of Transportation is focusing on a so-called "civility campaign" to try to get airline passengers to be on their best behavior while flying this holiday season. In a PSA the DOT released called "The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You," Secretary Sean Duffy scolds passengers (including by encouraging them to "dress with respect" while flying), putting all the onus on the individual to improve the hellish act of air travel. Meanwhile, the Trump DOT has rolled back Biden-era rules to actually improve the passenger experience, including one consumer protection meant to ensure passengers get fairly compensated for delayed or cancelled flights. 

• Happy Thanksgiving!

 

NEW: AI “recipe slop” is overrunning search and social. Food creators say Google’s AI Overviews and glossy fake food pics are drowning out real, tested recipes — collapsing traffic and setting home cooks up for disaster, especially this Thanksgiving.

Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

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— Davey Alba (@davey.bsky.social) November 25, 2025 at 7:16 AM

 

• Finally...sometimes this is the way it goes. Happy Tuesday! Happy long weekend!